Real Food for Thought 12/22/12

I imagine this is a frantic and harried weekend for many people. Some will be traveling, some will be readying their house for Christmas visitors, some will be making mad dashes to the grocery stores and mall for last minute items. Need a last minute gift idea? How about a copy of Festive Traditions: A Real Food Guide to the Holidays?

This is my first Christmas (ever) away from my family. My husband and I decided not to bear the stress (financial and emotional) of traveling home for the holidays, and we have been blessed with a plethora of invitations from church friends to celebrate Christmas in their homes.

My husband’s family tradition on Christmas morning is to open gifts and then have a big breakfast/brunch of scrambled eggs, bacon, orange juice, and “coffee cake.” (Imagine my surprise the first year I joined in the festivities to find out that “coffee cake” is actually Gooey Butter Cake! Dessert for breakfast?? Best Christmas Ever!!) So, my husband’s one request was to have that exact breakfast. Pastured eggs, nitrate-free pastured bacon, fresh squeezed orange juice was no problem…but I am gluten-free so finding a gluten-free Gooey Butter Cake recipe was a challenge! I found this great recipe and can’t wait to try it out on Christmas morning!

The best dish I made this week…homemade marshmallows. Oh. My. Goodness. Alert the media, these things are amazing. The recipe is from Keeper of the Home and I highly recommend hopping to the kitchen and making these pronto! They would make a great addition to hot chocolate this weekend!

I know many aren’t yet thinking about the New Year, but if you are considering changes you want to make, check out our 31 Days to Better Health and Wellness Challenge that we are doing across all four sites! You can register now and the challenge guide will be available late next week (lots of great giveaways!). Sign up today if you haven’t already!

Will ya’ll be doing the challenge again do you think? I’m really wanting to do it, but with the way January looks right now I’m afraid I wouldn’t be a wise thing. Or can it be done on your own?(I really want to do it, but oy!)